LAMP

November 19, 2013 at 11:06 am

by Juliane

This is a lamp, lamps come in lots of different sizes and shapes. Some of them are even shaped like this:

The lysosome-associated membrane glycoprotein, Lamp to its friends, is part of the lysosome and therefore involved in digestion of foreign materials and autophagy. LAMP1 and 2 were first discovered in 1985, since then they have been widely studied and shown to be involved in quite a few important pathways in human cells.

Immune response: LAMP1 is necessary for delivery of perforin to lytic granules.

Cancer: LAMP 1 is a marker for melanoma metastasis into lymph nodes.

Apoptosis: LAMP1 and 2 promote apoptosis.

General Research: LAMP is a commonly used as a marker for lysosomes.

The scientists, who named this versatile protein, were either very boring (it describes exactly what it is) or very creative (there is beauty in simplicity).